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Papilio lowi

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Great yellow Mormon
Dorsal view of female
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Genus: Papilio
Species:
P. lowii
Binomial name
Papilio lowii
H. Druce, 1873
Synonyms
  • Papilio lowi Rothschild, 1895[1]
  • Menelaides memnon lowii Page & Treadaway, 2003[1]

Papilio lowii, the great yellow Mormon or Asian swallowtail, is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. The species was first described by Herbert Druce in 1873. It is found in Borneo, Indonesia, and the Philippines (Palawan, Balabac).[2]

Description

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Wingspan: 107–126 mm (4.2–5.0 in) Male and female tailed. Male black, upper surface of the forewing with rather short blue-grey stripes at the distal margin; hindwing with broad, blue-grey, densely scaled band, which extends nearly to the distal margin, is almost uniformly concave towards the base and does not reach the cell. Female in two principal forms; forewing with the exception of the base much lighter, the red basal spot at least indicated, the blackish stripes between the veins weaker than in the memnon-forms, hindwing with large white, distally yellowish central area, which is intersected by the thin black veins: female-f. zephyria form, nov.) the hindwing almost entirely black, without white area: female -f. suffusus Lathy. — Palawan, Balabac and North Borneo. [3]

Biology

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Larvae feed on citrus plants. Adults nectar on various flowers.

Adults of P. lowi, much like other Mormons, mimic the inedible red-bodied swallowtails.

Taxonomy

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lowi has been considered a subspecies of Papilio memnon.

It is named after British colonial administrator and naturalist Hugh Low.[4] [5]

References

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  1. ^ a b Savela, Markku (March 20, 2019). "Papilio memnon Linnaeus, 1758". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  2. ^ Beccaloni, G.; Scoble, M.; Kitching, I.; Simonsen, T.; Robinson, G.; Pitkin, B.; Hine, A.; Lyal, C., eds. (2003). "​Papilio lowi​". The Global Lepidoptera Names Index. Natural History Museum. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  3. ^ Jordan, K. in Seitz, A. Band 9: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die indo-australischen Tagfalter, 1927, 1197 Seiten 177 Tafeln pdf Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ Druce, H. (1873). Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London.: 358.
  5. ^ do. Plate XXXIII, No.6
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